Michael Cohen, primo Trump Tower rat, faced the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Wednesday regarding his federal convictions that included previously lying before Congress.

I am an oaf.

The testimony and hearing were relatively uneventful, although a few Democratic members opened the door to potentially subpoenaing other members of the Trump family legal team.

By contrast, led by the blustering gasbag Mark Meadows, the Republicans focused on trying to close doors to any new details. They continuously asked Cohen if he lied previously. It took every Republican member asking Cohen about his perjury conviction before any of them could understand his very complicated and layered answer of “Yes.”

Remember, the first dictate given by the Lawgiver in Planet of the Apes is ‘Ape Shall Never Kill Ape‘

Meadows and company huffed and puffed at the idea that a person who lied before Congress before was trustworthy enough with other details Congress could believe. Meanwhile, people with memories not as selective and short as Republican oversight members begin thinking about another lying attorney, Elliot Abrams.

This man is a genocidal monster. And a convicted liar. And on the payroll again

He was found guilty of two counts of misleading Congress in details of the Iran-Contra affair. The Trump administration is now using that known liar, Elliot Abrams, as their Venezuelan envoy for a coup they are maliciously planning for the country’s elected president, Nicholas Maduro.

It is not clear if Michael Cohen told the truth yesterday or lied to Congress again, but what we do know is he will not be “fixing” any more legal situations for Donald Trump or other clients any time soon. Unlike Iran-Contra conspirators, who lied to Congress and the American people, including Eliot Abrams, Ronald Reagan, and Oliver North, Cohen will serve time for his crimes and no longer can practice as an attorney. His “destiny” as Representative Cummings called it would presumably keep him out of politics. For Elliot Abrams, he not only gets away with misleading Congress and abetting the Contras in the murder of innocent Nicaraguans, but he now is heading up a coordinated coup of Venezuela.

The hypocrisy of the Republican Party is glaring, but it is also dangerous. As a country, we have watched their aversion to truth and transparency become ground on which they have built power since the Reagan administration. Most want to believe that Trump is responsible for a new, post-truth Republican Party, but that is giving the naïve real-estate broker too much credit. It has been the party of post-truth, and the all-stars of its past are back in business again.